Final Fantasy VII: How the Biggest RPG Should Be Remade

Let’s
pretend for a moment that all of the risks involved in remaking Final Fantasy
VII have been resolved. Let’s fantasize that Square Enix is about to start work
on a new version of the game, either as a multi-platform PS3/360/PC release or
(more likely) a PS3 exclusive.

If those
things actually occurred – if FFVII was coming to a modern console near you –
what could we really expect from it? Or, more appropriately, what do we
specifically want from it?

An
image from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Could a PS3 remake of FFVII look
this real?

An
Alternate Reality

I’m not in
favor of changing the past, per se; after all, despite the
eerie similarities, FFVII isn’t Lost. But I’ve always wondered: what if
FFVII gave you a choice at key moments in the game?

When Aeris
is killed, Cloud (the only one standing next to her) is too messed up to react.
Tifa, Barret and the others wouldn’t have been able to move fast enough to stop
Sephiroth.

But one
party member could have: Red XIII. I do not believe for one second that if he
had been in your party at that moment he wouldn’t have tried to leap forward and
push Aeris out of the way.

And what if
he did? What if he got killed instead? Theoretically, Aeris wouldn’t be able to
complete her mission and Meteor, which was destined to hit the planet even after
Sephiroth was defeated, could not have been stopped.

This is the
kind of thing I’d want to see in an FFVII remake. We already know the horror and
the misery these characters went through in the existing FFVII. But if Red XIII
died instead, what would that mean for their future? The game could take on a
whole other dimension, as Sephiroth would repeatedly hunt Cloud and the gang in
search of her. This would be the perfect opportunity for the developers to
include new battle encounters with Sephiroth. This would (or at least could)
make the game several times as challenging, especially if, under this new Aeris-is-alive
scenario, the world grew darker and the monsters became more ferocious.

Ultimately,
the game would have to end positively, perhaps with Aeris having to sacrifice
herself anyway. But the idea of exploring another world like this – or, perhaps
even more horrific, a world where Cloud was killed instead – is very intriguing
to me. (If Cloud dies, who’s going to defeat Sephiroth in the final battle!?)

These and
other possible scenarios should not be used to replace the game we love; they
should be included as an alternative to the original FFVII. Thus, the original
game should also be intact and should be very easy to access within the remake.
To change things – to alter the world we know – the developers could add a
simple character-dependent feature that would change the story depending on who
you had in your party at specific times in the game.

If
FFVII is remade, expect the swords to look twice as big.

One Last
Night

Toward the
end of FFVII, Cloud tells his friends to go home so they can remember what
they’re fighting for. This part of the story is very brief; in a remake, I’d
like it to be extended by a few hours.

Two
characters really stand out here. The first is Barret; I’ve always thought that
he should go home to see his daughter. If it was at night, he would wake her up,
he wouldn’t care what time it was, and would take her to the Gold Saucer, which
never seems to close. I have this distinct vision in my mind of him and his
daughter on sitting on one of the rides, and he turns his ahead away from her
and looks out at the sky, a tear rolling down his face. With Meteor fast
approaching, you can see the fear in his eyes – not for himself, but for his
daughter’s survival.

I’ve also
thought that Cid, who wanted nothing more than to go into space, should go back
to Rocket Town. Since his eventual trip into space was short-lived, I picture
him pacing around the launch pad, dreaming of a different life. He wonders not
about what he’s fighting for but what he’s living for. He realizes that if he
survives this, if he defeats Sephiroth and if Meteor is stopped, that he wants
to go back into space. Before heading back to the group, he grabs as much scrap
metal as he can find and sketches out a plan for a spaceship – one that, long
after Sephiroth is finished, he will spend the rest of his life attempting to
build.

A Musical
Sequel

FFVII has
four CDs worth of spellbinding music. If a remake is ever developed, I’d want
Nobuo Uematsu to add another disc to the collection. Just as John Williams
recaptured the essence of the classic Star Wars movies for the prequel trilogy,
Uematsu would need to go back to the original score before writing new music.
From there, he should compose two-dozen new tracks that would accompany the
game’s new or extended scenarios.

We all
know that, deep down, Square Enix is dying to remake these CG characters in
polygonal form. Right?

Three
More Wishes

So there you
have it – my three biggest wishes for an FFVII remake. If I could have three
more, they’d be: (1) a 10-hour sub-quest with the Turks (demonstrating their
perspective of the game’s events), (2) 100 new Materia, and (3) several new
Summon Materia to acquire and new Weapon bosses to fight.

Crazy
wishes, I know, but we all have our dreams. Sometimes I like to dream about
fictional elements of RPG remakes that don’t even exist. But who can blame me?
Something tells me that if Square Enix made even 10% of the remake I and many
others envision, FFVII fans would be very happy.